Eld Chew Chong Kiat

Chastity is variously interpreted across race, culture, time, and faith. Many equate chastity to a woman’s virginity before marriage, and deem it a great dishonour to the family and even a crime punishable by death if she is found to be not a virgin before marriage. Such a notion focuses only on the physical and not on the heart, speech and other behaviours. Almost always this term is applied to women only, and men are excused to fool around and are not castigated.   

How does the Bible define chastity? Chastity is the focus in the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. It is God’s standard of chastity for all men and women of all ages and race. It requires the preservation of our own and our neighbour’s chastity in heart, speech and behaviour (Shorter Catechism Question 71). Chastity has to do with sexual purity and is not merely proven by virginity before marriage. Yes, fornication is a sin according to Scripture, but if a woman is raped and loses her virginity, she has not lost her chastity. Chastity is more than the physical; it includes the heart and speech as well. It is also not limited to the female gender, but is meant for everyone made in the image of God. Jesus said that if any man lusts after a woman in his heart, he has already committed adultery before God even though it is not before man (Matthew 5:27-28). Surely, this applies equally to the woman!

Let’s learn from God’s Word how to be chaste for His glory.

1Thessalonians 4:3-8: “3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.”

We shall look at these points:

1. Chastity is God’s Will.
2. Chastity is Priceless.
3. Chastity - A Mark of Conversion

1. Chastity is God’s Will. God saves us from our sins so that we will sin no more and be holy as He is holy. And the aspect of holiness that Paul highlighted in the above passage is in the area of sexual purity (1Thess 4:3). This is a sin that plagues the whole of humanity since the fall. God made man and woman and designed them to be sexual beings, male and female, that they be fruitful and multiply to replenish the earth. That implies the marriage bed, which naturally should be pure and undefiled (Hebrews 13:4). But since the fall, this has not been the case. Sexual sins defiled the whole of humanity, beginning with our first parents who suddenly saw their nakedness as inappropriate which before they sinned they saw no evil in it (Genesis 2:25).

Through the ages, the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, which are part of man’s depravity, have enslaved man to sexual sins. God demonstrated His hatred for these sins in the complete destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone. As children of the most High God, we must stand out from the rest of the world by our sexual purity, that fornication may not be once named in our midst (Ephesians 5:3). 1Thess 4:3, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.” The sin of fornication does great damage to the name and glory of God! It nullifies the very purpose of God’s glorious redemption.  

2. Chastity is Priceless. God made man not just as a living soul without a body. It is His will that man would be different from the angels. God’s will is that man has a body and would know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour (v4). The vessel, which is meant to hold something, refers to the body wherein the soul dwells. To possess means to get or acquire, and it implies that we are to own, be in control and have mastery over the body. Sexual sins are committed when there is a lack of such mastery. Depraved men do what comes naturally and follows the desire of their hearts. A born-again man, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is in mastery of the desires of the body and can regulate it according to God’s Word. God has also delivered us from the bondage to sexual lusts and we can now be chaste for His glory. This chastity is priceless, for God said that we are to possess this vessel of ours in “honour”, which means that we are to value our chastity with the highest price.

How has humanity cheapened the body by defiling it through sexual sins and incurring the wrath of God and His judgements. But the body is given of God so that we can be presented to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable - to do His bidding, to be His hands and feet, and His mouths to proclaim His truth! Consider the man Paul, although his body was broken for Christ through the afflictions that He endured for the gospel, but he was God’s chosen vessel to bear the gospel seed to the Gentiles, kings and children of Israel (Acts 9:15). We, likewise, as chosen vessels unto honour and vessels of God’s mercy (Romans 9:21,23) are to make known the riches of God’s glory. We bear in these earthen vessels the treasure (2 Corinthians 4:7), which is the gospel of Christ, so that Christ may be seen through us. And when any believe in Christ through our witness, all glory may be given unto God and not us because we are only the vessels. But how priceless are these vessels and how priceless is chastity! Without chastity, we are broken vessels.   

3. Chastity - A Mark of Conversion. Lastly, our passage tells us that Chastity is what distinguishes us as God’s people. Those without chastity are the Gentiles (v5). They give themselves over to the desires of the flesh and indulge in them, because they know not God. They defraud (v6) and take the chastity of another away just to satisfy their desires. God forbid that as children in the household of God we should defraud one another in this manner, for we know that God will avenge. Know that fornicators and adulterers have no part in the kingdom of God (1Corinthians 6:9). God’s call to salvation is not to uncleanness! It is a call to sanctification and holiness (v3,7). We know that we are translated from darkness into light when by the grace of God we are able to break free from sexual sins of every form. Do not be deceived, even if our secret sins are not found out and are not manifest to man, they are manifested in God’s sight. May the fear of God keep us from such sins, and let us not despise and grieve the Spirit of God that He has given to indwell us (v8).

Let us keep ourselves chaste for Christ. We are the living stones that make up the church, the bride of Christ. Soon the Groom will come to receive the bride to the reception in heaven, just as any bride who loves the groom will preserve herself spotless and blameless and look with expectancy to his coming. 

Let us guard our eyes and turn them away from looking at anything that will induce us to sin. Job’s example is to be emulated. “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1). We must guard our speech so that “no corrupt communication [will] proceed out of [our] mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) While we endeavour to preserve our chastity, we must also do so for our neighbours’ sake. Let our conduct and actions be modest and chaste lest we should stumble our neighbours and cause them to lose their chastity.

Thank God that if we sin, we can confess our sins, for God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). Come to Christ if you will be chaste. Abide in Him, for He alone is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24). Amen.